In a decision by its Congregation for the Clergy, the Vatican upheld Cardinal Sean O’Malley’s decree issued last year to deconsecrate, or make secular, the former church.

“I was just lost for the day,” Barbara Nappa, 77, of Scituate said. “It was like someone stuck a pin in me and deflated me.”

But Nappa said she pepped up Monday night after meeting with her fellow parishioners and learning that the appeals process hadn’t ended.

The Friends of St. Frances, led by Jon and Maryellen Rogers, said they will appeal the Congregation for the Clergy’s decision to the Apostolic Signatura, which is the Vatican’s version of the Supreme Court.

During a press conference held Tuesday at the church, Peter Borre, an adviser to the Friends group, said the next phase of the appeals process could last a year.

The vigilers said they’re not going anywhere in the meantime.

Terrence Donilon, spokesman for the archdiocese, said there are no plans to sell the former church or evict the vigilers until the appeals process has reached its conclusion. However, he urged the Friends of St. Frances to consider leaving and joining another parish.

“This vigil has to end. This vigil cannot go on for infinity,” Donilon said.

Borre, co-founder of the Council of Parishes, a group working to protect Catholic churches from closure, accused the archdiocese and the Congregation for the Clergy of making a secret backroom deal. Borre said he has sources in Rome who said the Vatican rejected the St. Frances appeal in exchange for the archdiocese agreeing to reconsider a overhaul of its church pastors.

Borre, who would not reveal his sources in Rome, said the archdiocese’s plan to move its 291 churches into 125 pastoral collaboratives has caused some concern among Vatican leaders.